from the agenda for Wed/Thurs Nov 7/8:
GIVEN THURSDAY’S HISTORY FIELD TRIP, B BLOCK WROTE THIS REPLY IN WEDNESDAY’S CLASS. F BLOCK WILL WRITE IT FOR HOMEWORK.
First reply to the following questions by leaving a comment of five to seven sentences. Compose your reply as a single, coherent paragraph, rather than as a list of answers. In other words, synthesize your various answers into a coherent whole. Proofread your response, before publishing it. Make every reasonable effort to act independently; eschew glances at your neighbor’s response. Be your own person, your own thinker. [Your responses will not appear, until everyone has posted one.]
Questions: What is reason? What does it mean to be rational? What causes people to be other than rational? Can you imagine circumstances in which a person would be wise not to be guided entirely by reason?
ENG10H World Literature 
Reason is the cause or justification for the action or an event. Reason is used to explain why somebody did something. Sometime the reason somebody did something is not rational. To be rational means you must be based on or in accordance with reason or logic. If you are not be rational your thoughts are actions are not normal and do not have any reason behind them. In some circumstance you might use experience over reason.
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Reason is using logic to make conclusions about situations that leads to rationality. Being rational means being logical about something rather than letting imagination take its course. I think people become irrational because of their imagination and their viewpoints on how things could play out or work in their own mind. Reason can’t be your only source of guidance because sometimes, supernatural things happen such as miracles and you can’t find reason for it. If the disciples were strictly using reason back in biblical times, would religion really be the same if miracles weren’t interpreted as real? What if your friend died and started breathing randomly at his funeral service. You don’t have a cause or explanation for that but just a irrational belief that it happened for a certain reason.
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Reason is the motivation or justification for doing or saying something. To be Rational means to approach situations with a calm mindset, not jump the gun and say or act foolishly. Sometimes people are not rational when a disaster happens or he or she is threated in some way. Sometimes people become selfish and instead of being guided by reason they are guided by greed, hatred, revenge and sometimes love. The great author of the great play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, Shows how love can blind rational think. In the story Romeo and Juliet defy all orders and go behind everyone’s back because they are so madly in love. The first example of their irrational behavior is when they get married. They are forbidden to see each other and they know the consequences if they are caught, but they get married anyway. Another great example of Irrational thinking is when Romeo kills himself because he becomes distraught over Juliet’s “death”. Here his impulsive action leads to his irrational death. Oedipus shows his irrational side when he says Kreon has deceived him. Oedipus is more worried about losing power then deciding if Kreon is being truthful.
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In my opinion reason is an explanation for a certain event or for something that has happened. If you have a good reason, it means you have explained or stated a cause for what you are talking about. Another word that had to do with reason is rational. In my opinion this word means making a decision or agreeing based off of reason or explanation. What causes people to be other than rational is when they do not know the cause or explanation of something, but still agree. An example of this would be how kids support the president that their parents support, without getting any information or cause to support that person. A circumstance were a person would be wise not to be guided entirely by reason would be if that person is doing something very risky or dangerous.
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Reason is an explanation; it is good to make a rational decision that is a decision with a good cause. People can be irrational when they are angry or sad. When someone’s life is on the line it is good not to act by reason. It would be better to have a ration decision rather than reason.
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Reason and rationality are two key items to making a logical and straightforward argument. Without these key items an argument can turn to a ludicrous and illogical fury of words, accomplishing nothing. This can be seen in “The Oedipus Cycle” through Oedipus’s conversation with Kreon in which Oedipus takes a very irrational and illogical approach to the conversation and immediately begins throwing out strong accusations that have no bearing besides that he believes them. “So? You come here? You have the nerve/ to face me in my own house? When you’re exposed as its master’s murderer?” (635-638). We know that it was Oedipus who killed Laios, (who Oedipus is accusing Kreon of killing), but his angered approach to Kreon clouds his mind so that he makes an irrational and illogical argument against Laios, which leads to Oedipus attempting to make rash decisions. From this it can be seen that strong emotions such as anger and rage can cloud the mind in result in a irrational behavior. These two key items are absolutely necessary in order to ensure an accomplishing and logical arugement.
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We use reason from the moment we are born to the moment we die. We use it to determine the path we will walk throughout our lives. Our own sense of reason will determine the type of person we will become. By definition reason is the justification of an action. But is there a point where reason can steer you wrong? Or lead you to make rash decisions? The answer to this question is no. Our reason, our logic, is who we are and when we stray from that we loose ourselves. We use our reason to determine the right decision for us, and when those decisions are no longer guided by your sense of rational thought then you will loose yourselves.
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Reason is thinking things through logically. Being rational would be doing things based on reason. One main contributing factor to people acting other than rationally would be emotion. When someone is extremely emotional they tend to act on pure emotion rather than reason. There are some circumstances where people should act solely on reason. Sometime you must act on emotion, because if you just solely act on reason you would just be a robot that does things only depending on the situation.
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Reason is what gives us the purpose to do anything and everything in our daily lives. These things can range from getting out of bed all the way to wether or not you purchase that new car. By using reason you are being rational, where you act upon reason. Self-fishness, unclear state of mind, and numerous other factors can lead to people to be irrational. There are many circumstances in which a person would be wise to not be guided by reason. When you are sick, depressed, stressed, or on some types of medications you may suffer from an unclear mind making you think unclear. This unclear thinking can result in some unfortunate situations.
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The definition to reason according to the New Oxford American Dictionary is the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic. To be reasonable or to have a reason for your thinking also comes into play here when making decisions. To be rational means that you are taking that reasoning and coming up with your own opinion based on knowledge. Other times people go against their reasoning. The forces that prevent being rational and coming up with your own reason are things that cover it up. Things get in the way of your first instinct or original reasoning, which calls for you to choose a different path, which may not always be right. In some circumstances there are people who need to be something other than rational. An example is when there is no right or wrong answer to a question. Sometimes questions call for you to not think, do research, or have reasoning behind you answer which is not answering in a rational way.
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